Ohio Republicans Spar Over Education

Ohio Gov. John Kasich accused Republican lawmakers Tuesday of trying to “weaken efforts to improve education for Ohio’s children” after a state Senate committee amended more than a dozen areas of his education proposal.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, the Republican governor spelled out his concerns in an emailed statement in which he said he was particularly troubled over one GOP senator’s effort to postpone a strong third grade reading requirement.

At the same time, state schools superintendent Stan Heffner warned that changes to Kasich’s proposal could create “loopholes” that would undermine efforts to obtain a waiver from some provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“As educators, we know that failure to identify struggling readers in early grades dooms them to a lifetime of struggle,” Heffner said

“The legislation being considered in the Senate would let principals promote kids even if they’re struggling with reading, micromanage how struggling readers are helped, strip parents of the chance to seek outside reading help for their kids, and simply lower reading standards,” Kasich said in his statement.

“In the early grades kids learn to read so that in their later grades they can read to learn. We can’t do anything to undermine that, because if we do we’re only hurting kids,” Kasich added.